Thursday finally arrived without any fanfare. It was the day that Shelly and I would say goodbye to our old, normal lives. You know that giddy but nervous feeling you got as a kid when you were going somewhere special? That feeling where you have fun butterflies in your stomach that are accompanied by the miserable feeling that you’re going to throw up? Yeah, I was running through cycles of that big time. I was fidgeting and couldn’t sit still.

It also marked the one week point before Dii Consentes’ planned attack on Pittsburgh. They hadn’t shown themselves since Seattle, something that had the entire country relieved. Many news outlets had taken to calling them “Transcendents” on account of what McLeod ended both broadcasts with. Mrs. Carmichael hated that name for them. She felt like it legitimized them as gods in the eyes of the public, something she specifically did not want for her people in Luna. She wanted their existence to be known, but slowly and gradually, leading to a good life for them where they could integrate into normal society without having to hide their powers. She didn’t want a war.

Then there was the matter of Lori. I kept making food and taking it over for her, but she never said a word to me. She was always on the couch when I was there. I was seriously worried that she was neglecting her personal hygiene, though I never went over to her to start a conversation. I would leave a note on the saran wrap of the food telling her what it was exactly, if it needed to be refrigerated soon, or how long to heat it up for, and I’d just leave after that. Some days I’d come back and there would be plates with small amounts of foot left, and on other days there would still be entire meals left over. I did take some small comfort knowing she ate a little bit. It was better than nothing.

“Pretty early in the morning for you to look so deep in thought,” Shelly said coming out of her room, dragging a suitcase behind her. We had three suitcases each, all of them containing personal items, valuables, or clothes. They fit just about all we owned. “Are you going to be okay?”

I shrugged and sighed. I really didn’t know if I was going to be okay. Even after everything slowed down a bit, with the world having its eyes ripped open to the concept of real life superpowers, everything still felt insane. Ultimately, Lori and Mrs. Carmichael had no problems getting inside our home, so they could have done us harm if they meant to. When I let everything settle and I started to think about it, I was beginning to second guess my decision to join them. I wanted to protect my family, yes, but was going with them really the best way to go about doing it?

“Mrs. Carmichael told you everything here would be taken care of, right?” I asked, trying to change the subject.

Shelly didn’t press the matter. “Yep. She said everything regarding our rent and lease would be taken care of, every belonging we’ve decided to sell will be sold and the money given directly to us, and you can take advantage of our school district’s online classroom program to finish up your degree. After that, it’ll be up to you whether you do college or not. Luna has certain programs for college students, and you can worry about that after you graduate high school. They’ll probably talk to you about it when that time gets closer.”

Thinking about the future, I looked around at the room and tried to imagine what it might hold for this place. We had to live cheaper after Mom and Dad died, so we moved to the apartment after Shelly begged the landlord for help with rent to get a roof over our heads. To repay him, we kept the place in outstanding shape. Even though we hadn’t lived there that long, it was so familiar to me. It was at the top of the very short list of places I felt safe in the world. In a moment of nostalgia and sadness, I was hoping that its next residents treated it with care I felt it deserved.

“Did I make the right decision?” I asked Shelly as I looked at a framed picture of our parents. What the hell would they have thought about their son having superpowers? “Part of this is stupid, right?”

“Oh, definitely is,” Shelly replied, sitting down next to me. “We’re going with people that we don’t know much of anything about, and at the same time, I don’t know if there’s a better alternative. At least they didn’t attack us. I think I’m a good judge of character. They seem like decent folk.”

That much was true. There were some good and bad aspects to the choice I made, so I really appreciated having Shelly’s support. Mrs. Carmichael was, unless it was a bluff, practically immortal anyway. If she wanted to take us by force, there was no way we would have really been able to stop it, even with Shelly’s gun. Then her Teleporter let her travel to my place with ease. Then she gave me a choice of whether I wanted to stay or go. If she was trying to fool me, I was either way too stupid to see it, or she was good at pulling the wool over my eyes.

“Think they’ll be nicer than moving to a new high school?” I asked, the nervous feeling returning in full force. “Is that even that bad? It’s almost always bad on TV shows. The new kid always gets bullied during their entire stay, except for the time where he ends up being friends with the bully and getting the attractive girl. I hope I get something closer to the latter.”

“First, neither of us have moved to a different high school, so I couldn’t tell you if it’ll be nicer,” Shelly replied, taking the picture of Mom and Dad so she could look at it, her gaze thoughtful. “Second, you’ve managed very well so far, all things considered. You’re a good kid, I’m sure there will be plenty of people who want to be your friend. Just make sure you remember it’s up to you to let them be your friend.”

“What about you? What’re you going to do?”

Shelly shrugged and sighed. “Do my job on my laptop. I don’t know how exactly they pay for everything there, so I’m not going to be caught off guard by a sudden unemployment scare. If I meet some people there, that’d be nice too. It’s been a while since either of us have really had friends.”

“Are you going to look for a boyfriend?” I asked, giving my sister a playful nudge with my shoulder.

“You know, I think that wouldn’t be a bad idea,” she responded, sounding slightly embarrassed, her face going a little pink. I was waiting for her to tell me she was kidding, but she just went on. “You’re an adult now, so I don’t have to worry about splitting my time between two people as much. I haven’t had a boyfriend in years, so maybe it’s just about time I do get back out there and try my luck.”

“Huh, didn’t think you’d actually say yes,” I admitted. “Bet you’ll get a boyfriend before I get a girlfriend.”

“Give yourself more credit, little brother. You’re much less abrasive than I am. You do have to learn to step out of your shell, though. Remember, whole new world we’re going to. Bunch of new people and potential friends to make.”

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“Giving me the big sister pep talk now?”

“You’re due one every now and again. Can’t have you telling anyone I didn’t at least try to give you some good advice every now and then, can I?” Shelly capped off her gentle teasing by bumping me with her elbow. “Now come on, make sure you take care of any last goodbyes you might have. Who knows if we’ll end up seeing this place again.”

Shelly smiled sadly and patted my back before getting up to double check that she packed everything. She’d spent most of the past week going over her packing job over and over again. I was pretty sure that she was having a difficult time saying goodbye, and that was her way of trying to deal with it. My way of dealing with it had been to try and not think about it, which absolutely wasn’t the healthiest thing to do.

I thought more about how she said we might not get another chance to go back to the apartment. Honestly, with Fink around, we probably could get back with no issues, but how long would it be until someone else moved in? Even if we could go back, we certainly weren’t going to be allowed to just waltz right back in like we owned the place. With how hard low-income housing was to come by in the area, there was no chance our place would stay vacant for long.

I wasn’t as sentimental about the apartment as Shelly, yet I found myself in my soon-to-be-old room. All the furniture would stay unless the next residents didn’t want it, in which case it would be removed free of charge. Still, seeing all the furnishings around made me feel as if I was just going away for a little while, not permanently moving to the other side of the country. It was like my bed still being there meant it would be home for as long as I wanted it to. That just wasn’t reality.

Maybe that was why it was easier for me than Shelly. Maybe I just hadn’t quite come to grips with the fact that I was leaving and that I was going to some place new and unfamiliar. And it was all pretty much because I broke a TV with something that I hadn’t been able to replicate in the week since it happened. So yeah, perhaps it felt a bit on the surreal side for me for good reason.

I sat down on my bed and looked up at the crack in my ceiling that had been there for years. I was pretty sure I didn’t cause that one, though I wasn’t about to make any guarantees. When I was younger and first dealing with my parents’ death, I thought that crack would end up leading monsters into my room to attack me. I was way too old to believe in monsters, but to the younger Ethan back then, the entire world was some kind of large monster. Nothing made sense to me back then, and I always thought that darkness would spill through that small bit in my ceiling. Considering I regularly saw shadows move about, it was clear those thoughts hadn’t ever left me.

I began to consider if that was another reason why I wasn’t torn up about leaving. Sure, it had been my home and was the safest place I knew, but so many negative parts of my life were spent here. Waking up in the early morning hours with nightmares for years? Not something that would endear a place to me, even if it was stupid to blame an apartment on that. Aside from the night of the murder, the apartment held most of my worst experiences.

It took me a little bit more thinking to reach a conclusion for why I wasn’t feeling as down as I could be. Optimism for the future. Negativity hurt me where I was, but Shelly was right. It would be a fresh start with Luna. It gave me something new to focus on, with people that would be, presumably, like me. That same optimism and focus had helped curb some of the paranoia I’d felt, too. I hadn’t seen any shadows since our lunch at the diner, despite how much dread McLeod filled me with. Maybe leaving was something I personally needed.

I just wished that my minor bit of soul-searching didn’t reveal that only a little bit before I was supposed to go. Having more time to sit on my thoughts would have been nice. Disappointingly, that wasn’t meant to be when I heard my sister yell from the kitchen.

“Ethan, they’re ready for us! Hurry up, it’s time for us to go!”

My heart thumped hard in my chest as adrenaline and nerves coursed through my body. Any sadness about leaving was gone, replaced with excitement and anxiety. I did one more quick sweep of my room to make sure I didn’t miss anything. When I got to the door to leave, I mouthed a silent goodbye to the little corner of the world that always belonged to me.

“Keep the next person safe too, okay?” I asked in a whisper as I left the room, not dwelling on the fact that I just asked a room to do me a favor. I truly did hope the entire place could help make some other family happy, though.

I closed the door for what I expected to be the last time, heading back into our living room. Shelly was there, arms crossed and tapping her foot, seeming as riddled with anxiety as I was. Fink was also there, looking exhausted and tense. Poor guy had massive circles under his eyes and his hair was much shaggier than it was at the diner. He took a couple of weary and clumsy steps toward Shelly, doing his best to smile and look happy.

“Hello, Ms. Harper and Ethan,” he said. His voice was a little higher than I was expecting. “Are you guys good? Have everything together? I hope you do, because I don’t know if I’ll have enough in me to bring you back here to get anything you’ve left behind. Oh, I’ll be able to teleport your car to our garage in the coming weeks.”

“We sure do,” Shelly assured him. “You have everything, Ethan?”

I nodded, something that made Fink loosen up a bit. Earlier in the week, we were instructed by Mrs. Carmichael to have our belongings touching each other, and ourselves touching our belongings. According to her, Fink could teleport multiple people and things at the same time if they had a shared chain of contact. I wondered if that meant he could teleport one hundred people as long as they were all holding hands.

Shelly nudged me, breaking me away from my thought. “Make sure your suitcases are touching and get ready.”

I followed her instruction and waited for Fink. He walked between us and placed a hand on each of our shoulders. I stiffened under the contact, forcing myself to stay still for him.

“Now, the sudden change in location may be a bit disorienting,” Fink began, “but I’ve never had anyone complain to me about a negative side-effect before. Which is good, because any complaint is going to be overruled by free teleportation that exhausts me, so make sure you guys keep up my good record. Now then, buckle up and hold on tight, gang.”

I remained stiff as a board waiting for something, anything at all, to happen. I expected us to just suddenly be somewhere else, but there we remained in my living room. I felt Fink’s grip on my shoulder tighten and he let out a few labored breaths. I looked over and saw his brow furrowed in concentration.

“Does our new place in Luna happen to look exactly like our apartment?” I asked, trying to break the uncomfortably tense silence.

“Very funny,” Fink said, shaking his head. “I must be more beat than I thought. Can’t seem to get the teleportation going. You guys have a snack or something? Maybe that’ll get some energy running through me again.”

“I swear, if you’re doing this just to make this dramatic or get free food out of me, I’m going to be pretty pissed,” Shelly said, clearly annoyed. She dug through her bag, before finally fishing out a breakfast bar and handing it over to Fink. “Here. At least it’ll be someone’s breakfast.”

“Great, thanks!” Fink eagerly took the breakfast bar, tore off the wrapper like, and ate it in three massive bites, barely even taking time to chew the thing. When was the last time he ate something? “Ah, that hits the spot. Okay, Ms. Harper and Ethan, are you ready for me to try again? I’m feeling more energized now.”

Without waiting for us to reply, he placed his hands on our shoulders one more time and shut his eyes. Shelly and I had to quickly place our hands back on our luggage, with myself nearly falling over in the scramble to do so. Luckily, I kept my balance and got my hand on my suitcase just before the scenery suddenly shifted. I heard Shelly muttering a few swears as she battled to make sure her luggage was secure as well.

“Welcome, Ms. Harper and Ethan, to Luna Catskills,” the familiar voice of Mrs. Carmichael welcomed us. “I sincerely hope you enjoy your new home with us.”